Pipe Green is an area of meadowland that is today enjoyed by many Lichfield residents. Since medieval times, it has been used for animal grazing and as a result, is one on the few remaining examples of unimproved meadowland within Staffordshire. Today it is managed under a Higher Level Stewardship scheme to maintain this rare habitat.
Many of the visitors to Pipe Green enjoy the tranquility of the Green and the unspoilt views to the cathedral; a perspective that must have hardly changed since medieval times. What maybe less obvious to visitors, is the variety of ecological habitats that exist on the Green, which support a wealth of plants, birds as well as invertebrates and fungi. This has led to Pipe Green being registered as a Site of Biological Importance (SBI).
Pre 1793
Very little is known about Pipe Green, prior to the establishment of the trust in 1793. When and how the inhabitants of Beacon Street acquired ownership of the land is still a bit of a mystery. A reference of 1819 says
"Pipe Green is said to have been left to the poor widows of Bacon Street, as pasture for their geese."
However frustratingly, there is no mention of who this person was or when the land was left! The 1791 document owned by the Trust gives a small clue as it states:
"a piece of land called Pipe Green ...... which for time immemorial hath been esteeemed and enjoyed as the property of the inhabitants of Bacon Street"
So what is "time immemorial"? It is likely that the area covered by Pipe Green originated from early enclosures, some of which were most likely medieval. In addition it is known that a half-timbered moated medieval house, dating to 1294, existed on the land adjacent to Pipe Green. This site is believed to have been the manorial seat of Thomas de Abbenhall and is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Despite being covered in nettles and not particularly obvious from ground level, the moat can clearly be seen from Google maps, as shown on the photo opposite. It is quite difficult to imagine what the manor would have looked like, but we are lucky that images exist of Handsacre Hall, which is a moated medieval manor of a similar age (and just down the road in Handsacre). Unfortunately, Handsacre Hall was demolished in the 1970s, but an excellant article on this local site is written by Lichfield Lore.
There are also some more interesting ariel photographs of the site, taken in the 1970's which show a possible track or channel leading to the moat. More of this can be found towards the end of yet another fascinating article by Lichfield Lore
From all of this evidence, it is possible that Pipe Green might have formed part of Thomas de Abbenhall's estate and may well have been cleared of woodland and used for farmland and or grazing in the 13th century. Often the lord of the manor would allow tenants to graze their livestock (geese, cattle, sheep) on a certain area of his estate and maybe this is the origins of Pipe Green? A visit to the record office is needed to find out more!
The early history of Pipe Green is not well documented. It is inferred, from 18th and 19th century records, that the residents of Beacon Street acquired, possibly as early as medieval times, 37 acres of land, known as Pipe Green. The land was used for the poor inhabitants (widows) of Bacon (Beacon) Street to graze the land as pasture for their geese and livestock. The land was marshy with osier beds and Leomansley Brook ran across the Green. To this day, even after extensive draining, Pipe Green is often referred to as “the Mogs” (marshy land).
Over time, the grazing rights were abused and in 1793 a legal document was drawn up, in which the Pipe Green Trust was formed. Membership to the Pipe Green Trust was restricted to householders of Beacon Street. The Pipe Green Trust controlled access to the Green: it was closed for grazing between February and May each year, no person was allowed to pasture more than 2 head of cattle and a fee of 3s 6d was charged per animal per annum. Half of this money was used for improving the Green and the other half was given to the poor (widows) of Beacon Street as a distribution at Christmas. A constitution was drawn up and a committee was appointed. A Pinner was appointed to round up stray animals and an Inspector ensured that only householders who had paid their subscription, were allowed to graze their cattle. The original document resides in the records section of Lichfield Library.
In addition to this documentation, we are very fortunate to have the original agreements relating to Leomansley Mill as well as Maple Hayes. We also have, in Lichfield Record Office, the account books, which give us a detailed record of payments dating back to 1793, as well as minutes of Annual meetings of the Trust from 1932. All these give us a fascinating insight into how the land was used, how it was managed and who the people were. For example in the late 19th century it seems as though moles were a problem on the Green and mole catchers were hired, at a cost of 10s 0d (50p), to deal with the problem.
By the 1920s, there was less demand for grazing and during the Second World War the Ministry of Agriculture was interested in ploughing the Green for crop production: fortunately this never occurred and the meadowland habitat was preserved!
In the 1980s, with the expansion of Lichfield, Pipe Green became an important recreational area: locals would regularly walk across the Green to Leomansley. In addition, Pipe Green formed part of the route of the Darwin Walk, as well as the Heart of England Way. It was during the 1980’s that much work was done on the Green to protect the meadowland habitat and this work has formed the basis of our present management plan.